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Here is a scenario I had to take quite a while to decide on. The only info I had on this guy is that he would raise pre flop every now and then and the same player would always reraise and he would fold. I kept thinking the player knew something that I didn’t, as if he had notes on him.

This was a full ring table at a $5 tourney at pokerstars and I had A8o. The flop was 224 and we we 4 players to limp pre flop. He bets and I am the only caller. The turn is a brick, I bet and he raises allin. I have him covered about 3 times.

Based on instinct I put him on a low pocket pair like 5s and I get out of the hand but I would not criticize a call here as it would not take much more but if I were in this situation ace high just is not good enough for me to call.

My problem in this hand is easy, easy to figure out it seems. I had absolutely no reason to limp from UTG. This hand was a fold pre-flop. The trouble I got in after is solely due to even being in this hand. Anyway I think I am probably behind here and I should fold. He bet out into a multi-way pot on the flop, and showed that it wasn’t a steal by re-raising your bet on the turn. In a full 9-10 handed table, I normally fold AJo and KQs UTG.In most cases, obviously some situations and some table types may change this, e.g. a very passive table may allow raising or calling from early with those hands. A8o is an insta-fold UTG though, I play it from late position if the blinds are worth stealing, apart from that it’s trash.

I had a nice chipstack, no need to get crazy in this hand. Ok so I made a play at a pot that you were stuck in and my opponent reraises you allin. Well my read was off or maybe it wasn’t but at that point I just had release. If I were bluffed then fine they deserve it with that move, but to call here is just crazy. I see it is unanimous, so I am feeling like I may have made a bad call. This was my reasons for calling.

1. His pattern of raising with nothing,
2. I felt he took a stab at the pot after the flop. He didn’t have the 2 because he wouldn’t have bet a rainbow flop,
3. He didn’t raise preflop which he often did so I didn’t put him on anything significant in his hand,
4. I had 3 times his chip stack so I would be hurt but not short stacked by calling,
5. His bet was too big (weak is strong/strong is weak),
6. If my read was right he would be out of the game and I will have a nice increase to my chip stack.

I was worried about him having the 10 which was my biggest concern. I used up a lot of my extra time making this decision. As far as me being in there with A 8 off, I was fine with that. After playing an hour or so with the same players it wasn’t a bad idea to be in there with a mediocre hand since they were playing rather tight and so was I. You have to mix it up a bit and that was what I was doing. Any raise I would have folded without hesitation. Anyway, it turns out my read was spot on. He had nothing (Q9o).